Distance of Sun From Earth - Hanuman Chalisa

After a very long time, the string "Distance of Sun From Earth - Hanuman Chalisa" was one of the eye catchy phrase and a beautiful search that mathomathis had ever come accross. It was really hard to imagine, that in "Hanuman Chalisa" a sanskrit slokha had a method of calculating the "Distance of Sun from Earth" say just couple of 3000 years back, in the reign of Lord Rama(Tretha Yuga) is simply astonishing fact. And today, mathomathis will try to cover the story behind it.

Śrī Hanumān Chalisa and Distance between SUN and EARTH

It is a poem written by Tulsidas in the Awadhi language, and is his best known Hindu text apart from the Ramcharitmanas. The word "chālisā" is derived from "chālis" in Hindi, which means 40, as the Hanuman Chalisa has 40 verses. Hanuman Chalisa (Hindi: हनुमान चालीसा "Forty chaupais on Hanuman") , composed by great devotee and sage Goswami Tulsidas, is a devotional prayer recited daily by Millions Hindus in morning prayers.

While describing greatness of lord Hanuman in Hanuman Chalisa, Goswami Tulsidas, the greatest devotee of lord Ram in Kaliyuga, mentioned the distance between SUN and EARTH very correctly in simple words. This shows not only spiritual greatness but also scientific knowledge and enlightement of Goswami Tulsidas.

In Hanuman Chalisa, Goswam Ji says:-

जुग सहस्त्र जोजन पर भानू लिल्यो ताहि मधुर फ़ल जानू॥१८॥
juga sahastra jōjana para bhānū lilyō tāhi madhura pha़la jānū॥
॥Hanuman Chalisa -18॥


Here Goswami Ji says, while Hanuman Ji was child, he went in sky and covered a distance equivalent to one thousand Yuga Years Yojans distance in space to see the sun as it appears like a red-orange rippen fruit during sun-rise.

जुग सहस्त्र जोजन पर भानू

juga sahastra jōjana para bhānū

meaning - The sun is at one thousand Yuga Years Yojans from earth!

Now a days scientist measures astronomical distances in terms of light years and in Hinduism the astronomical distances in space is described in terms of Yuga (specific time spans like Kaliyuga, Dvapar Yuga, Treta Yuga and SataYuga) Years. One divine Yuga in scriptures is of 12000 years.

So one thousand Yuga - 12000 X 1000 = 12000000 Years.

One Yojan = 8 Miles

So Jug Sahastra Yojan Years = 1200000 x 8 Miles = 96,000,000 Miles

(This is very near to the avg distance between earth and sun.)

And as per astronomical scientists, The average distance between the Sun and the Earth is about 92,935,700 miles (93,000,000 Miles).


In terms of Kilometers:

1 Mile = 1.6 KM,

So, Distance between earth and Sun = 96,000,000 X 1.6 KM = 1,53,600,000 KMs

Around 3rd July, the distance between earth and sun is around 152,098,232 kilometres (aphelion orbital axis) which is very close the figures described in simple words by Goswami Tulsidas in Hanuman Chalisa.

Hanuman challisa was written by Goswami Tulasidas (born 15th century) in Awadhi language who belongs to 15th century. which means the distance between Sun and earth has been calculated much more accurately than the 17th century scientists even before 2 centuries.

[And the mean distance of the Sun from the Earth is approximately 149.6 million kilometers (1 AU), though the distance varies as the Earth moves from perihelion in January to aphelion in July]

Jai Hanuman